Community

The Forum of Young Global Leaders is a community of innovators from diverse backgrounds and experiences. Search current members and alumni by year awarded, sector or region.

Nathalie van Ypersele de Strihou

Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer; General Manager, Communication, Syensqo, Belgium

Nathalie van Ypersele de Strihou is Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer as well as General Manager, Communication at Solvay. She was previously partner at Akkanto, a consulting firm in communication, based in Brussels and Editor-in-Chief of Trends-Tendances, the number one business weekly magazine in Belgium. She won two press prizes. Nathalie van Ypersele is leading a Foundation with social projects (schools) in the Philippines, India and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Paul van Zyl

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, The Conduit, United Kingdom

Paul grew up in South Africa during the apartheid era and served as the Executive Secretary of South Africa’s post-apartheid Truth and Reconciliation Commission from 1995 to 1998. His background is in human rights law, and he has received a number of scholarships and accolades for his work in global social impact. Paul was selected as a Hauser Global Scholar at NYU, a program which selects 10 of the finest students from countries across the world, chosen on the basis of their intellectual and leadership ability, as well as their capacity to participate productively in a global community of scholars and practitioners. He received the Skoll Award for Social Entrepreneurship in 2009 with Juan E. Mendez, with whom he founded the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ), an international human rights organisation based in New York City which works for justice in over 40 countries that have endured massive human rights abuses under repression and in conflict. Paul was chosen as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2008. He has served as an adviser and consultant to many NGOs and Governments on transitional justice issues in over 30 countries. Paul co-founded The Conduit in 2018, and that year was named by London Tech Week as one of its 30 "Change Makers", celebrating the companies and people harnessing technology to inspire social and economic impact and drive global innovation.

Leo Varadkar

Teachta Dála (Member of Parliament), Parliament of Ireland, Ireland

Studied medicine at Trinity College Dublin and qualified as a General Practitioner. Former Member and Deputy Mayor of Fingal County Council. 2007, first elected to Dáil Eireann, Ireland (House of Representatives) as the TD (Member of the House of Representatives) for Dublin West. 2011-14, Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport. 2014-16, Minister for Health. 2016-17, Minister for Social Protection. Since June 2017, Leader of the Fine Gael Party and Taoiseach.

Vyron Vasileiadis

Chairman, V Group, Greece

Vyron Vasileiadis is Founder and Chairman of V Group, a robust Group of Companies with a strong presence and continued growth in Waste Management, Renewable Energy Sources and Financial Investments.

Vyron is a self-made entrepreneur, who began his career in 1995 as a site worker for a cleaning services company before successfully progressing to the innovative leader he is today. He received his bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the American College of Greece in 1998 and completed the Executive Course on Global Leadership & Public Policy for the 21st century at Harvard Kennedy School in Boston, Massachusetts.

During his career, Vyron has received numerous achievements and awards, including the KOUROS-Development and Innovation Award by the Greek Entrepreneurship in 2014 and the nomination as a Young Global Leader (YGL) in 2017. Recognized for the performance of V Group and the added value generated to the society, he has been honored by various national, international, and global stakeholders in business, environmental, circular economy, and sustainability aspects, together with: Environmental Awards, Waste & Recycling Awards, Manufacturing Excellence Awards, Circular Economy Awards, Bravo Sustainability Awards, Diamonds of the Greek Economy, European Business Awards, and Global Business Excellence Awards.

Constantly in search of future opportunities and striving to shape advanced ideas, Vyron Vasileiadis seeks to add value to his growing business portfolio, while positively impacting the world for future generations.

In 2021 V Group’s assets approached €93m and over the next few years, plans to invest in various environmental and renewable energy assets.

Vyron’s corporate philosophy is motivated by his strong ambition to achieve net ZERO carbon footprint, adopt ZERO Waste practices, and raise new sustainable business models.

Knowing what truly matters, his vision would not be complete without his constant support for those in need and the advocacy of animal rights. Having said this, Vyron Vasileiadis has established the Deppy Vasileiadis Foundation, a philanthropic organization, whose main goal is to award grants in the areas of children’s education, fight against animal cruelty, and protection of the environment.

Ivan Vatchkov

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, kalibra.ai, Singapore

Ivan Vatchkov is the founder and CEO of Kalibra.ai, a longevity and healthspan company that turns our health data into actionable insight. He is also a private investor focusing on fintech, healthtech and edtech. Prior to this he was a hedge fund portfolio manager for over 10 years at multi-billion dollar funds GAMA and Algebris Investments (Asia) in Singapore. He has been a member of the Young Global Leader community at the World Economic Forum since 2014.

Ivan’s expertise has been acknowledged and extensively quoted by Bloomberg™, Asian Investor™, CNBC™, Reuters™, FT™ and the Wall Street Journal™. He is recognized as a thought leader in financial regulation, compensation incentive reform and the new Basel III hybrid debt market (‘CoCos’).

Prior to Algebris Investments Ivan was a Director in the CFO office of Credit Suisse Investment Bank and an equity analyst at Credit Suisse and Deutsche Bank. Ivan holds an MSc in International Accounting and Finance from the LSE and is a CFA charterholder.

Ivan and his wife are engaged in extensive philanthropic work having established ReachOut.BG, a children’s charity based in Bulgaria dedicated to the support and education of abandoned children.

Ivan currently lives in Singapore with his wife and three children, and speaks English, Russian, German, and Bulgarian.

Arnaud Ventura

Managing Partner, Gojo & Co, France, Metropolitan

Executive Summary
Arnaud Ventura founded and led two of the leading financial inclusion group in the last 20 years active in Micro&SME finance, and digital finance before joining Gojo as its managing partner to support the development of the Group in Asia and build the Africa’s activity.
Between 1998 and 2008 Ventura cofounded and led with Mr Attali & Mr Yunus PlaNet Finance, one of the global and most successful European Financial Inclusion Group. Between 2008 and 2019, Arnaud Ventura founded & led Baobab (formerly MicroCred), the leading Micro&SME digital bank in Africa & China.
Additionally, Arnaud Ventura has been appointed Young Global Leader of the World Economic Forum in 2013 and he cofounded the French China Foundation the leading network of Young Leaders between French and China.

Ayesha Vera-Yu

Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK), USA

CEO and Co-Founder of Advancement for Rural Kids (ARK) which co-invests with rural communities in the developing world on securing food, health, kids' schooling and their self-sustaining future.

In 2020, at the height of the pandemic that triggered acute hunger among farmers and fisherfolk who feed the world, Ayesha steered ARK to pivot its award-winning and the world’s only self-sustaining, 5-cent school lunch to a food security program that benefited everyone in the community.

ARK's Feed Back is a community-based vegetable exchange that is solving hunger in just 5 weeks. It creates a path for families to source food from their backyards, exchange excess produce with their neighbors, and sell to their own community, nearby villages and towns. It enables communities to work together, be food secure and resilient. It launches new entrepreneurs and new local, regenerative and equitable food systems. In the past 2 years, 35 communities across 6 provinces partnered on Feed Back. Together, we have secured 8,607 families captured 105% of at-risk families transformed over 76,000* lives.

Prior to ARK, Ayesha was Director at BNP Paribas where for 11 years she was involved in leverage finance, acquisition finance and loan syndications. She also restructured a farm in the Philippines making it the first one in the province to be organic, and to offer fair employment, revenue share, healthcare and continuing education to farmers/employees. Expertise - management, industry and business credit analysis, restructuring, natural farming, sustainable systems, social ventures.

Diana Verde Nieto

Co-Founder, Positiveluxury.com, United Kingdom

Diana Verde Nieto, is a prominent business leader and sustainability expert. Diana has a remarkable track record of over 20 years of experience in guiding companies towards sustainable economic growth and innovation. She established one of the world's pioneering sustainability communication consultancies in 2002, which she exited in 2010. In 2011, she co-founded Positive Luxury and spearheaded the enterprise until 2022, continuing to sit on the board.

Diana serves as an advisor to several noteworthy organizations, including La Praire, The British Beauty Council, The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affair. Diana was trained by former US Vice President Al Gore at the Alliance of Climate Protection and received title of Young Global Leader from the World Economic Forum.

Diana has recently released a book- Reimagining Luxury: How to Build a Sustainable Future for Your Brand in January 2024, which further solidifies her as a highly respected authority in the realm of sustainability and business

Martina Viarengo

Professor, International Economics, The Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Switzerland

Martina Viarengo is Professor in the Department of Economics at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies of Geneva. She is Faculty Associate at the Harvard University, Center for International Development, and a Member of the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Women's Empowerment. Prior to joining the Graduate Institute's faculty, Dr. Viarengo was an Economist at the Centre for Economic Performance of the London School of Economics and a Post-doctoral Fellow at Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government. She was selected as a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum and she was named a Newton International Fellow by the British Academy and the Royal Society. She holds a PhD from the London School of Economics and a Master's Degree in Economics from Northwestern University.

Zeblon Vilakazi

Vice-Chancellor, University of the Witwatersrand, South Africa

Professor Zeblon Zenzele Vilakazi FRS was appointed Vice-Chancellor and Principal of Wits University in January 2021. Previously holding the position of Vice-Principal and deputy vice chancellor for research at the university of witwatersrand. 2007-2013: Director of iThemba LABS, the largest nuclear physics research lab in the southern hemisphere. Research interests include nuclear and computational physics.
Taught at University of Cape Town where he was involved in a large scientific project conducted at the ALICE experiment of CERN's Large Hadron Collider (LHC). From 2009 to 2011, served as Chairman of the IAEA Standing Advisory Committee on Nuclear Applications. In July 2022 was elected as Fellow of the Royal Society of London.

Stephanie Villedrouin

Product Development & Public Relation Director, Explore Caribbean, Dominican Republic

Married since November 2003 to Marcel Villedrouin, mother of three children Shamsy, Nathan and Sylka.

Stephanie B. Villedrouin was nominated Minister of Tourism Octobre 2011 at the age of 29, making her the youngest minister of President Martelly administration. She has set some prestigious goals for Haiti, including leading this country to be one of the top five destinations of the Caribbean; The Minister sets forth her strategy of developing the sector by promoting tourism investment to attract and accompany potential investors. In the past two years, she has signed numerous contracts to help the students in the tourism field to acquire more knowledge and experience through better education. She develop a new concept of developing new destinations “a regional all inclusive experience”, where the communities in the surrounding of the hotels will benefit directly from the tourist dollar, from which she got a grant from the IDB representing en envelop of 36M$ that will be invested in all regional natural and historical attractions. She has launched a Hibiscus quality control for the Hotels as well as the Touristic Police Corp. More than twenty sites have been redeveloped as part of her effort to promote local and international tourism.

Prior to her nomination, Hon. Villedrouin after returning from her studies in Dominican Republic (choice of field hotel management) she became the following year a board member of The Haitian Tourism Association for more than 5 years. She also served the community by becoming a voluntary teacher in the private University of Quisqueya. Her efforts have helped to raise the awareness of both public and private sectors in this industry and helped them realize the outstanding role that Tourism plays in the country’s economy.

Christophe Villemin

Operating Partner, Searchlight Capital Partners, United Kingdom

Christophe Villemin has been Operating Partner of Apollo Global Management from 2015 to 2019. He served as the President of Constellium Aerospace & Transportation from 2011 to 2013. He joined Alcan in 1994 and held various leadership positions in different sectors in packaging and aluminum conversion in Europe and United States. In 2002, he was appointed as General Manager, Alcan Rolled Products in Switzerland (former-Alusuisse) and in 2005, President, Alcan Engineered Aluminum Products (EP), Packaging & Automotive Rolled Products. Prior to Constellium, Christophe Villemin served as President of Rio Tinto Alcan Rolled Products until 2010. In 2008, Mr. Villemin was distinguished as a “Young Global Leader” of the World Economic Forum.

Christophe Villemin is co-founder and Chairman of the ski brand Black Crows. He is Member of the board of Latécoère S.A., Jacques Marie Mage and Easymile